Look at the Book

Being blameless for the day of Christ doesn’t mean that we lived perfectly. It means that we lived a life hating our sin, seeking holiness, and trusting in Christ.

Our neighborhoods need men and women who delight in beauty not pornography, excellence not crudity, Christ and not the world.

If Jesus tells us to go and pray to our heavenly Father in secret, should I ever tell others that I am praying for them?

When God saves someone, he not only gives them a new love for himself, but a new love for his people.

Slavery is a haunting skeleton in the closet of many nations of the world. But doesn’t the Bible say there will be slaves in heaven?

God does not save us and send us to the couch. God calls his people to work out their salvation with fear and trembling and sends them out into a lost world.

Man’s will changes God’s plans like a gentle breeze changes the mountain.

God didn’t get his people part way out of Egypt or halfway through the Red Sea. Our God completes what he begins.

We cannot fight sin with our hands tied in condemnation. Only when Christ has set us free can we truly conquer our sin.

Bombs explode. Wars rage. Adultery devastates. With so much wickedness in the world, can we really say that God rules over everything?

Grace has brought us safe thus far, and grace will bring us home.

A day is drawing near that will swallow up all other days. Great days, bad days, slow days, fast days all lead unfailingly to judgment day.

Christians are robbed of help and God is robbed of praise when we are too proud to ask others for prayer.

Anyone who tells us that following Jesus is easy doesn’t know what it means to follow him. The way is hard, but the path leads to life.

Digging for treasure is harder than raking leaves. But those who aren’t afraid of callouses can find spiritual diamonds in God’s word.

Many respect Jesus as a good moral teacher like Gandhi or Socrates. But the Jesus of the Bible will not allow you to make that claim.

Few relationships in this life compare with gospel friendships. Better to have one Christ-centered companion than one million followers on social media.

We may outgrow childhood clothes and car seats, but as children of God, we never outgrow our need for grace and peace.

Kingdoms need a king. Children need parents. Sheep need shepherds. The Church needs servant leaders that point them to their King, Father, and Shepherd.

Sainthood is not a trophy for the spiritually elite to win. It’s a free gift that every child of God receives.

Slavery has horrible connotations in our day — and for good reason. But servitude to God gives life instead of taking it away.

The beggar and the prince, the African and the Asian, the wise man and the simpleton can all be saved by trusting in Jesus Christ.

If you believe that the greatest thing that God has done for you is provide food for your table and health for your family, you are not a Christian.

It would be better to be born at the base of an erupting volcano than to be born spiritually dead.

Your biggest problem is not your old car, your mundane job, or your broken family. Your biggest problem is your sin.

Everyone wants a happily-ever-after, but few people are willing to give up sin and autonomy to get it.

We can’t live meaningful lives if we don’t know why we were created. If we think God merely made us to be wealthy, healthy, and happy, we don’t know why he made us.

If no one in your life knows you are a Christian, you probably aren’t one. Heaven is only for those who were unashamed of their Savior on earth.

Satan loves to remind us of all that we are missing out on if we follow Christ — except for hell.

The great irony: those who love their lives will lose it forever, while those who lose their lives will gain it. Death with Jesus offers more life than any luxury in this world.

Following Jesus is not like following someone on Instagram. It doesn’t involve making a click; it involves taking up a cross.

The book of Proverbs is not a collection of fortune-cookie like wisdom. It’s a book available only through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Wisdom is not something for the academic elite. It’s necessary for everyone who desires to follow God and live a joy-filled life.

Loving money over God is soul-suicide. Those who love money over God will be eternally poor, but those who love God over money will own the universe.

Combine all the authority that kings, presidents, and dictators have had throughout history, and it pales in comparison to Christians ruling with Christ in the world to come.

Mosquitos kill millions, massive floods destroy cities, earthquakes destroy countries. With the chaos of creation harming us, do humans really have dominion?

God conquers his foes by weak babies and rules the world with weak men. He is more likely to use your weaknesses for his glory than your strengths.

God conquers his foes with babies and rules his world through the frailty of man, all to demonstrate the splendors of his majesty.

Wars rage, cancer lingers, and suffering remains so that we all might know how horrible sin really is.

For God’s children, all suffering is light compared to the weight of the glory coming, and all affliction is temporary compared to eternal bliss.

Satan loves to lie to us in our suffering. He tells us that God must be against us if he would allow us to experience pain, the experience of discipline really proves that we are children.

If you who are evil know how to embrace your children when they cry, how much more will your heavenly Father embrace those who run to him in their pain?

When we suffer, we often cast ourselves as the victims. When Jesus was asked about suffering, he called a world of sinners to repent.

The final chapter in any book is often the best, and yet many Christians do not rejoice in Revelation because it can be hard to understand. In this lab, Pastor John helps us read the last pages of Scripture.

Revelation can be difficult to interpret. In this lab, Pastor John illustrates how to begin to understand the symbols, and apply them to life today.

We can lose our love for one another. One comment, one moment, one interaction can put out the flame of our affection. But can our love for God be extinguished?

Every Christian tastes and sees that God is good. Then we suffer and witness to a dying world, hoping that they might taste and see the same.

Heartache, brokenness, and death may mark our biological families, but God’s grace creates a new family that death, disease, and disaster cannot shake.

The grace of God meets us more faithfully than the morning and strengthens us more ardently than our daily bread. We rest, labor, and stand firm in grace.

God’s grace turns rebels into citizens, orphans into children, an adulteress into a sinless bride. We receive the grace, he receives the glory.